Slip concealed in undergarments of dowry harassment victim stands as evidence

HYDERABAD: A slip (chitti) written by a victim of dowry harassment, concealed in her under garments, stood as a vital piece of evidence in the case, with the court sentencing the victim’s husband, in-laws and also his paramour, to life imprisonment on November 16, 2022.

The forensic experts who analysed the hand writing in the slip, compared it with her earlier writings and found the hand writing to be of the same person.

The court also framed murder charge against the accused, as against the dowry death case registered initially by police at Asif nagar police station in the year 2014. This, in addition to other evidence, proved the guilt of the accused in the court.

Initially, the woman and her two daughters were found dead in an underground sump at their home in December 2014. During the postmortem examination, a slip was found in her undergarment. The handwriting expert at the Forensic Lab said that the person who had written the slip, also wrote the other paper, which was examined for comparison.

The court also took into consideration the text messages the victim sent to her brother. “The victim also as an abundant caution kept the slip written by her with her own writing apprehending danger in the hands of the accused,” observed the court.

Pointing to the ‘antemortem’ injuries on the bodies of the victim and one of the two daughters found during the postmortem examination, the court observed “ the possibility of accused beating the victims before their death cannot be ruled out and thus, the accused are liable for punishment under charges of murder but not death by suicide due to harassment for additional dowry.”